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Paleo Honey Ketchup

I spent the evening making ketchup! Since we’re on the GAPS Diet and we don’t eat any processed foods, sugar or high fructose corn syrup, I pretty much have to make my own condiments. I have 3 little boys who love ketchup with their nitrate-free, sugarless organic hot dogs, so I have to make a lot of this stuff!

1 to 2 green or red peppers (all I can find this time of year is green)

2 large onions

2 cloves elephant garlic (or 4-5 regular cloves)

3 TB Sea Salt

1/2 tsp Allspice

1/2 tsp Cloves

1 tsp Cinnamon

4 cups of honey

3 cups raw apple cider vinegar

Method

Wash the tomatoes & remove the stems. If you have a Vita-Mix you can just throw the whole tomatoes inside. If you have a different kind of blender, you'll probably have to slice them in half or in quarters (sorry!) before you puree them. Note that if you want a perfectly smooth ketchup, you may want to scoop the seeds out of the tomatoes before pureeing them, but this will yield less ketchup for a whole lot more work. I'm too lazy to do that, and I think our ketchup is just fine! 🙂 Once you've pureed your tomatoes, dump them into a big pot and keep pureeing the rest. You can also puree the onions, garlic and peppers (slice the peppers & remove the seeds and stem, and peel and quarter the onions and garlic). Mix all of this up in a big pot.

Add in the spices, and then cook over medium heat, uncovered (except for a screen if you've got flies in your house like me ;)). Let this mixture reduce (so that it becomes thicker). This takes a couple of hours. Don't turn it up too hot or it will boil over (ask me how I know ;)).

When it is reduced, add in the apple cider vinegar and the honey, and let it cook for about 15 to 20 more minutes.

While the vinegar and honey are cooking into the mixture, you can be sterilizing your jars and heating up your water bath canner! Make sure to start with sterile jars and fresh, sterile rings.

I use a funnel and a ladle to pour my ketchup into the jars. Once the ketchup is in the jars, I put the lids on and screw them on tight, and then process them in a boiling water bath for about 15 minutes.

Pull them out of the water safely with a jar lifter, and hear the jars make that wonderful little popping sound! Now you've got healthy ketchup stored away for your family!

I’ve made the ketchup recipe in the GAPS cookbook three times (adding cinnamon, cloves, and allspice), and each time it turned out differently. Plus, it’s tough not to be able to have a steady supply and to have to make a fresh batch each time we run out. I was really wishing there was a recipe for GAPS ketchup that I could can…and then I ran across yours. Thank you SO much!! I made a batch yesterday and it is SO delicious. I don’t care for ketchup, but I could eat this by the spoonful. It is a little sweet for us, I’m wondering if I could cut it down to 3 cups honey and have it turn out safe to can? It also took *way* longer than 15 minutes to thicken back up after I added the honey and vinegar, more like an hour. But it was definitely worth it and I’m hoping to make another batch to make sure my ketchup loving GAPSter children have plenty of ketchup available until this time next summer. Thank you SO much for this recipe!!

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Disclaimers

I'm not a doctor, and I don't have a fancy title. I've got a bachelor's degree in English, a bunch of experience with my own health and the health of my kids, and a whole lot of passion about real food and legitimate research and studies. That said, I have to tell you that you should probably consult with your doctor before following any of the advice that I give. Hopefully you've got a really good doctor who believes in real food and who cares about your long-term health! :)
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